A walk in the woods

Another glorious day ... how could we not go for a walk? When we first took holidays here in 1995, we bought a book of "the best walks in the Aude" and did quite a lot of them, discovering the area slowly. Since deciding the local walking group is not for me (too much walking, not enough time to smell the roses take photographs), I dug it out from the back of the bookshelf, and it was responsible for last week's walk.

Today we stayed nearer home, driving to Villar-en-Val through vineyards just beginning to change colour. The walk was very different from last week's -- no magnificent views, but dappled shade in the woods, moss-covered ruins, and wooden posts with random quotations from "local" author Joseph Delteil (he was born in Villar-en-Val but spent most of his life elsewhere). Once again we didn't meet a soul till we got to the chapel near the end of the walk; seeing us arrive, three ladies resting on the bench outside immediately got up and hurried off, leaving us the bench to admire the view.

Back home: we lit the fire just for the pleasure of it. Dinner was served, and now we're going to listen to Jonathan Coe's What a Carve-Up! on Radio 4.